South Florida & the Keys

Like all great cities, Miami and Miami Beach have a distinctive architectural style. Actually, art deco isn’t just distinctive in Miami. In places like South Beach, it’s definitive. The style is an early-20th-century aesthetic expression that embodies seemingly contradictory impulses – modernity with nostalgia for the beaux arts; streamlining coupled with fantastic embellishment; subdued colors and riots of pastel. Whatever your take on deco may be, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a better concentration of it outside of Miami and Miami Beach.

South Florida loves to embrace all the latest trends in fashion, cuisine and the arts. But look beneath the region’s surface and you'll find a landscape populated by primeval inhabitants. Alligators, around since the time of the dinosaurs, are incredible survivors, having evolved into flawlessly engineered predators. You can see them all across the Everglades on boat trips, viewing platforms and boardwalk trails. One of the best places for prime gator viewing is along the Anhinga Trail at the Royal Palm Visitor Center.

The Florida Keys are linked by Hwy 1, also known as the Overseas Hwy. Heading over the road’s many bridges and pulling over intermittently to admire the Gulf of Mexico or Florida Bay is simply one of the great pleasures of Florida travel. If you don’t feel like driving, you can cycle much of the 113-mile route; most of the way is flat, shoulder lanes are established throughout, and more than 75 miles of the Florida Keys Overseas Heritage Trail are there for cyclists to enjoy.

All across the region, you’ll have the opportunity to dine on some of the best ingredients plucked straight from the ocean. For seafood lovers, the range of offerings is truly astounding. You can slurp fresh-shucked oysters at a Miami bar, chow down on conch fritters in Key West and gorge on fish sandwiches from one end of the Keys to the other. There are also delectable stone crabs available in season (mid-October to mid-May). Get them fresh from the source at old-fashioned waterfront eateries in Everglades City.

If you think Miami is all velvet ropes and phony people, you have this city all wrong. Nightlife here is as diverse as Miami’s population. You’ll find brassy Latin jazz joints, buzzing microbreweries, friendly neighborhood pubs, stylish rooftop lounges, creatively configured cocktail dens, open-air music jams in backyard bars and bass-heavy nightclubs where the dance party continues well into the next day. The nightlife scene has something for all, and the best way to see it is to get out and join the fray.

When people think of fun in the sun and Miami, their mental Rolodex often flips to two words: South Beach. And don’t get us wrong! South Beach is stupendous. But if you’re interested in escaping the crowds and the pressure to look fabulous, head to North Beach. People-spotting aside, this is generally a higher quality of beach. Places such as Haulover Beach Park are pretty enough to serve as your screensaver, and if you really fancy a complete tan, there’s a clothing-optional beach here too.

Key West is many things: counterculture icon, southernmost tip of the continental USA, and sun-drenched haven for the gay community. But for all these things, it is also, like it or not, a floating bar. Thousands of folks come here annually to cut loose. Join 'em! Start with a sunset over Mallory Square, watch a dog on a tightrope and fire-eaters, then embark on the infamous ‘Duval Crawl’ and get ready for the night of your life. Just don’t plan much for the morning after.

One of Miami's most famous neighborhoods, Little Havana is actually populated by more than Cubans. Spanish speakers from all across Latin America mingle on Calle Ocho, otherwise known as ‘8th St,’ one of the most colorful, culturally vibrant thoroughfares in the country. It helps to speak some Spanish, but it doesn’t matter if you don’t. Just don your finest guayabera (Cuban shirt), order a mojito (or a tall tropical fruit juice) and place your finger on Miami’s multicultural pulse.

Miami’s hippest residents pop into South Beach clubs occasionally, but for years the loci of cool-kid activity has been Wynwood and the neighboring Design District. Many buildings in these former working-class ‘hoods have been transformed into galleries, studio spaces, art warehouses and sometimes all of the above. Every month these art outposts throw open their doors on a night of art openings – a showcase for some of the rising stars in the art world. Wine flows as an art-loving crowd hops from gallery to gallery.

Miami doesn’t lack impressive buildings, and some say the grandest jewel in the city’s crown is the Biltmore in Coral Gables (even the name rolls aristocratically off the tongue). Built in 1925, this hotel encapsulates the two initially disparate vibes of the Jazz Age: brilliant flashiness and elegant dignity. Today the majestic grounds are prowled by the well-to-do and the ghosts of guests past. And we don’t just mean the Biltmore captures the essence of its heyday; some say spirits haunt the halls.

South Beach is all about glamour, in its original, Old English meaning: a spell. Magic. So many celebrities come to South Beach that their lifestyle rubs off on we mere mortals who chase them around, hoping to spot them strolling Lincoln Rd or sipping a drink at the Shore Club. There is a self-fulfilling magic to the paparazzi atmosphere of South Beach. Lose yourself in the swooning crowd, because as you search out celebrities and hang in their hot spots, you start feeling like one yourself.

Coral Gables is called the 'City Beautiful,' and with good reason. America in general and Miami in particular are often associated with gaudiness, but Coral Gables takes this cliché and turns it on its head. Yes, houses here are opulent, and some are admittedly over the top, but many are gorgeous executions of a Mediterranean-Revival style that blends the best of Iberian villas, Moroccan riads and Roman pleasure domes. Coral Gables is Miami’s House on the Hill; we highly recommend gawking.

Good old Glades boys – who once lived in what is now one of America’s most beautiful national parks – dubbed one stretch of water ‘Hell’s Bay.’ Why? The waterway, part of a complicated capillary network of Glades streams, was ‘hell to get into, hell to get out of.’ But it’s also heavenly once inside, shaded and shadowed by a tunnel of vegetation that cools you while water runs past your paddles. Forget fearsome titles: kayaking Hell’s Bay is one of the most romantic exploratory experiences in South Florida.

Everyone assumes the Florida Keys are ringed with beautiful beaches, but this is actually not the case. The Keys are mangrove islands, and as such their coasts are often a tangle of bracken and vegetation – pretty, but hardly traditional beaches. Not so at Bahia Honda, where a smear of buttery sand is spread along the coastline. Book early and you can camp here, waking to perfect saltwater breezes and the glimmer of a new day dancing on the nearby waves.

There’s a feast for all seasons when it comes to partying north of Downtown Miami. The bars, pubs and clubs here, which stretch from the edge of artsy Wynwood to the Upper East Side, run a veritable gamut of styles: there are posh lounges draped with pretty people, gay dive bars where karaoke is often on the menu, and converted studio spaces that host live-music venues. The public art project Wynwood Walls sits near the epicenter of this nightlife nexus.